Island or SSB first?

My wife and I are going to CTI for the first time at the end of September, and she is still reluctant in experiencing the AN areas. She expressed some interest in going over to CSS for the day (assuming we sign up in time) so I was wondering if we should try the island or SSB first?

Our first AN on the Island

My wife and I got married at CTI on 08/09/2010 and it was incredible. We had arrived on the 5th and came to a decision to at least try the island. I mean who are we gonna know and we could at least say we had tried an AN beach before we died...right. Well we found that we had the best times while on the Island. If we had to do it again, we would not have missed a single day enjoying the fun and new friends on the Island. There just seemed like less stress and lots more smiles and laughter on the Island. We even took the top of our wedding cake to the Island to celebrate and have an AN reception after our wedding. After a few minutes you will realize no one is really looking at ya and when they do they look you in the eye. Most of the time anyway. Just go, have fun, and don't look back.

Ssb

As your wife is a bit shy, I'd recommend SSB. The beach is large enough that you two can set up camp on the beach and really be out of close scrutiny of anyone. You could play "cabana boy" and ferry drinks.

SSB is the au naturel section at Couples Sans Souci.... it has it's own pool and swim up bar along with a nice section of beach that is totally seperate from the resort... you have to walk past the textile beach and water sports and keep follwing the yellow brick road and you will be there....

The right hand side of the island at CTI is quite private, people will not bother you or continually walk passed you... if you are worried about being shy, this is the best place to start and it's SO relaxing.

scottnkim wrote: The only issue I can say about SSB and privacy is when you go to the bathroom you have to walk by the pool.... Try them both and decide...

I do agree, but if you're "shy," you can always wrap a towel around yourself to go to the bathroom. I'm not shy, but I do usually wrap my towel around myself if I'm going up for food. I'm not sure why, but it just seems weird to be scooping food onto a plate while I'm starkers. Then again, I'm also a klutz, so maybe it's my subconscious trying to protect me from spilling hot food and getting burned in embarrassing places.

I would recommend the island for a first time if you have the choice. Our 1st experience was on the island and it seemed more secluded to us. By that I mean from others outside the resort. We did the day trade to CSS and loved it but there were some locals that were diving for lobster that would come up on the beach. If you walk into the ocean over towards your left on SSB there is a river or creek that the local children were playing in and some would wonder over towards SSB. Not sure if thats an everyday thing but something to think about for your 1st time. We didn't mind it since it was on our 5th day of AN. Either way do it early in your trip!

SSB is fairly large compared to TI and you can go off to the right and be fairly distant from the next couple, but its all in the open. Whoever mentioned the bathroom is correct as well.

TI has an area off to the right that is fairly private, but you still may be in view of one or two couples. TI is also more private from the general public. SSB had some guys "fishing" right off and next to the beach when we went. SSB also has more staff, wheras CTI usually has just a bartender and perhaps a maintenance person for an hour or two.

We tried both and enjoyed both. We did find TI to be more social by the bar than SSB.